John then announced in a loud clear voice “Ok thank you for your help everyone, now please clear the room, I have a very ordinary 3d measurement scan to get done… no spectators please!”
“Are you sure you don’t need a hand with that John?” called a tall broad guy with short brown hair and beard, There was the sound of a slap to the back of his head “Owww, that hurt Mia!” he exclaimed. The slim girl behind him said “You only want to oggle you animal!, I thought I had trained you out of that behaviour … I may have to think of suitable punishment.“ A few sarcastic “Ooos” and “ Your in trouble now” came from the other guys. The big guy responded “Yeah, yeah .. I know” and laughed as they exited the room.
John walked up to the 3 friends and said in a more gentle manner “Look, Lisa is going to be here in a few minutes. Kim, do you think you can run the scan from here? I need to supervise the backup of the main geological database? “
”Sure no problem, but could you open the drive for me?” she looked a little embarrassed “I managed to break the last 2…”. John raised an eyebrow “Has something changed?”. “Yeah it looks like they increased the capacity but made the case cheaper." Kim grumbled.
“Sure, let me have a look.” At the words from Kim, Mel started digging around in her shopping bag and pulled a clear plastic bag with what Fran took to be some sort of deep electric blue clothing inside and was surprised when Mel said “Here this is for you!” with a small grin. Then went back to digging around in the shopping bag. Fran looked at the cloth through the plastic bag. It looked like a one piece bodysuit. Mel handed John a blister pack. John walked back over to the tool box by the newly repaired cabinet of electronics. Rummaged for a moment and bought out a pair of cutters which made short work of the blister pack. John gathered together the few tools still on the floor and dumped them in the tool box. He picked it up and strolled to the small workbench. John examined the match box sized device … “Hmmm what have they done to these?” He discovered the label was hiding a single screw. “Well that’s annoying!” he exclaimed “… remind me to get some new labels in …. hmm, fortunately the heads are below the discs.” With care John extracted a translucent pale blue disc and passes it to Kim who was cupping her hands. Gently Kim walks over to Mel and Fran who are by now standing in front of the scanning area’s low entrance gate.
”Fran please put your hand out palm up and be very careful when I give you this”
“I’m going to supervise the back ups, call me when you're done”. John says as he smiles and ambles to the door at the other end of the room.
“So, Fran this is going to act as the Focus for the secrecy oath / curse” says Kim, Frans eyes go wide with concern. “Mel you didn’t tell her!?” “Umm.. I didn’t want to trigger the curse!” says Mel quietly. “Well I suppose it works” Kim mutters.
“How this works is .. you agree to the curse / oath and the disc being coated in sapphire acts as a Focus, the sapphire seems to make it work indefinitely as far as we can tell. Anyway you are not to tell anyone about the `Extra` we do here in real life for the VR Life Holistic Mind and Body Healing group in VR Life. Yes, you can tell them all about the meditation, yoga and mental support that's normal to the holistic mind and body practice stuff. There's sessions held every day at various places in VR Life… some people enjoy it, so whatever rocks your boat eh!? But the `Extra` which usually takes place at the shrine of Minerva, if the ‘Extra’ is revealed to non-members your real identity and location will be revealed to everyone else who is part of the oath.”
Fran frowns “Is that all? "
Mel chimes in "To some their real name and location are very very important to them …. for various reasons."
"Ok what is this `Extra`? and why am I here? … you want me to join?”
Kim looks softly at Fran "I think you will fit right in and I know Mel is kinda excited" glancing at Mel.
Fran looks critically at Mel “What am I doing here?”
Mel starts “As part of the initiation and as you are a member of our beloved Knitting club.. Well, it’s sort of hard to explain some of it. We “The K Club” have a ‘Presence‘ in VR Life where we have been experimenting with some ‘sewing’ as it were, only thing is it involves some non K members, they think it’s just the effects of mind, sense and focus training etc, Like enhanced meditation, But it’s not!. And it’s NOT sanctioned by the Elders, soooo you know … secret! Get you 'expelled if Waterfield finds out' level of secret.”
“What Mel is asking Fran, is will you join us? As a perk you get a high definition scan of your body for free to use as your Avatar which helps increase the synergy of the ‘sewing’ … and other things “ Kim winked mischievously.
“And the resulting enhanced experience is , to quote the Lady, ‘Mind Expanding and Mind Blowing ’” Mel grinned.
“Wait … who is ‘The Lady’ ? ” Fran asked perplexed…
“You pick up on details real quick. Hmmm good question! … maybe she can answer for herself ”. Kim smiles
A small white light on the control panel starts pulsing slowly.
“Who is it Minerva?” Kim asks loudly to the room.
A soft gentle voice fills the room,, “Lisa Menscantor is requesting a 3D conference call Kim”
“Minerva, the system has a voice now?” Fran whispers to Mel. “Yeah , but only here, the control centre and VR Life, it still freaks some people out” Mel shrugs. “That’s not the voice they were experimenting with last year when you showed me?” “It’s surprising for sure, we are not sure where the voice data came from but it’s good so we are keeping it” Mel said.
During that brief conversation Kim asked Minvera to connect the call.
A spot light came up slowly in the scanning area and some red curtains dropped from the ceiling . They then parted and an ordinary businesswoman of about 5’7” (1.7m) tall was revealed, she wore a modest grey skirt suit and her dirty blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail. She stepped forward and greeted the group with a warm smile.
“Hello Kim, Good to see you again Mel. And this must be Francis? Lisa queried. “Hello, my friends call me Fran, I still think I’ve done something wrong when anyone uses my full name” chuckled Fran as she tried to get over the seemingly magical appearance of Lisa. Then Lisa was saying “Are you joining our little exploration of VR?” The red curtains faded from existence behind her.
“What happened to the curtains?” Fran questioned everyone in surprise. Lisa looked over her shoulder, smiled and looked back at Fran. “Mel did say you were very observant. I definitely agree you would be an excellent addition to the sewing group”. Lisa continued “What you just saw was the latest holo projection technology in action and an inadvertent test of observational skills.” Lisa smiled. “Many would not have noticed , even less would have commented about the ‘vanishing curtains’ Indeed they were never there and neither am I .. I’m in my office / Lab home.
